Hurdler Chloe Pak storms to Hong Kong’s first gold medal at Asian Youth Athletics Championships in Kuwait
- The 16-year-old dominates 100 metres hurdles final, posting a new personal best of 14.02 seconds on Friday
- ‘She has already showed the capacity to break 14 seconds. This is a wonderful start for this young girl,’ coach says
Teen hurdler Chloe Pak Hoi-man is hoping to go sub-14 seconds after winning Hong Kong’s first gold medal at the Asian Youth Athletics Championships on Friday in Kuwait.
The 16-year-old dominated the 100 metres hurdles final, posting a new personal best of 14.02 seconds – 0.15s ahead of runner-up Sabita Toppo of India, with Irene-Li Lai of Taiwan taking third in 14.24.
“I was a little worried because there were only eight girls in our event, which meant we did not have heats to try out the venue,” Pak said.
“But thanks to the Hong Kong Athletics Series in the summer, where there were only straight finals because of pandemic restrictions, I sort of got used to the format.”
Placed in lane 3, the Diocesan Girls’ School fifth form student was comfortably leading all the way – until she made a mistake on the seventh hurdle.
That allowed Toppo a chance to reduce the distance, but the Hongkonger regained her momentum just in time to cross the finish line first.
